Next to Each Other

Nick's huge party/ The hangover the next day

(Rei's POV btw)

It was already 1 PM, and Ethan's brother, Dick, was going to drive me and him to my house soon so I could get ready for the party before dropping us at Nick's house. It had been hours since Ethan had gotten up, but my brain kept playing his morning voice over in my head, along with how good he looked in sweats that hung low on his hips and a slightly tight-fitting singlet that had slightly ridden up his figure. God, he's so hot it's unfair. Why does such an asshole like him have to look so attractive? 

All three of us got in the car, Dick in the driver's seat, me and Ethan in the back seat. The drive to my house was quick, luckily. Everyone was awkwardly silent. I could tell that the brothers did not get along and were going to ask Ethan about why, but I never found the time to. As soon as he pulled up to the front of my house, I got out and told the other two to wait for me in the car because I would be super quick. They both nodded and stayed put in their seats. I speed-walked to the front door pulled my keys out of the back pocket of my jeans and unlocked the door, the rest of my family was out at a museum exhibit or something. I ran to my room and threw on a dark green fishnet long-sleeved shirt, a black crop top with mushrooms on it, and short black shorts before putting on some dangly green mushroom earrings and a few rings before grabbing a handbag for my phone and keys while rushing out my door to the bathroom to put on some simple red lipstick and slight green eye shadow before leaving the house and locking the door and heading back to Dick's car. (I do not have a picture reference of her outfit, sorryyyy)

We arrived at Nick's place at 4:00, although the party didn't start until 5:00, Nick said that Ethan could come early so I ended up coming early too. He said that Nick wouldn't mind me being there, but I was still a bit worried about coming early uninvited. Ethan knocked on the door as I stood behind him, Dick was already pulling out of the driveway and speeding down the street. Nick opened the door and welcomed us in, giving Ethan a bit of a weird look when he noticed me, but he didn't say anything about it, so I took it as a win. We all just sat in his lounge, waiting for 5 to come around, Nick told us about how his parents were out of town so they wouldn't know about this, Ethan joked that the house would be so messy that his parents would know. I sat there silently, listening to the conversation, not wanting to interrupt. Other people finally started arriving. Heaps of people that I recognized and only a few that I didn't. I saw Eva and went over to say hi, even though I didn't like many of her friends they were all nice people and I greeted them as such. After talking to a few people, I decided to make a beeline for the liquor. Nick was a big fan of drinking, so I knew he had everything good. I decided to make a peanut butter whiskey and almond milk mix, something I introduced to my high school and became widely adopted as one of our favourite drinks. I drank it while talking to some other kids by the drinks before grabbing a bottle of wine and walking off to find a seat. I found a free seat by the window and decided to take a seat there, finishing my wine and watching my old classmates playing beer pong and dancing to some music playing from an unseen speaker. Then Ethan walked up to me, he seemed fairly sober.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked, I could barely hear him over the sound of the music and screaming teens.

"Having the time of my life. I haven't been this relaxed in ages. How are you?" I asked, suppressing a hiccup.

"I'm good, how much have you drunk so far?" I didn't know why he cared, but I guess he could know.

"I've only had a nutty whisky and a bottle of red wine, so not much yet." He laughed at the last comment. He then sat down next to me on my window couch and started having a casual conversation. For some reason, I enjoyed talking to him more than anyone else so far at this party. Eventually, I decided to get more alcohol and Ethan came along with me, continuing to talk to me, not too concerned about where we were headed. I grabbed another bottle of my favourite red wine before Ethan started dragging me by my wrist that was free of the bottleneck upstairs towards a room with a closed door. He opened it, pulled me inside, and shut it behind him. I started recognizing the room, it was Nick's bedroom, with posters on the wall from all kinds of bands, especially The Uptowners. I smiled at the posters, before noticing that he had heaps of the posters and merch that was rare and had limited production, I then got jealous that he had more stuff than I did. What bullshit. I took a sip of my wine before looking over at Ethan, he was smiling at me from where he was sitting on the bed. I went and sat next to him. We picked up the conversation where we had left off downstairs, I finished the entire bottle, now feeling closer to the sky. I suddenly felt super tired, so I rested my head on Ethan's shoulder before promptly passing out. 

When I woke up, I was lying down in Nick's bed on my side, Ethan's arm around my waist, holding me close. I felt my body heat up to the point where I could swear steam was coming out of my ears. This was like a dream come true. I wiggled around so that I was facing Ethan before burying my face in his chest and quickly falling asleep again. Right before slipping into sweet dreams, I felt his arm slightly squeeze me. Tonight, could not have ended better.

The next morning, 4:00 AM

I woke up to Ethan slightly shaking me,

"You awake, okay, are you feeling, ok?" He asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Yeah, I just have a bit of a headache," I replied.

"Wanna get something from Nick's fridge?" It was cute how he was trying to look after me.

"Sure. Why not?" I laughed, getting up and adjusting my shirt. We then headed downstairs to raid the fridge. We found some chocolate muesli bars and Ethan grabbed us each a glass of iced water. We chatted, not bringing up the fact that we had fallen asleep together. That's when one of my least favourite people showed up in the kitchen, Sylvester. Me and him had dated for almost 8 months, which is pretty fucking long for 14-year-olds, only to find out that majority of the time he had been dating some other chick as well. She was kind of an asshole already, but after finding that out, me and most of my friends decided that she was one of the most horrible people we had met. But Sylvester was even worse. Infamous for two-timing girls and emotionally manipulating them to stay with him, almost everyone hated him. Including Ethan apparently. After seeing the dickhead walk into the kitchen, he started death-staring him, to which Sylvester smirked. God, I hate him. He grabbed a bag of chips and left, blowing me a kiss on his way out, to which I replied with a middle finger.

"God, what a sleazy bitch." I said once he left. Ethan nodded before replying,

"If you want, I could always punch him in the face for you." I laughed before saying,

"As much as I would love to see that, I don't want you to have to touch him." It was then his turn to laugh, before we went back to talking about random shit. We enjoyed the peace and quiet until the other teenagers started to wake up. We then decided we should probably leave soon. It was about 7 AM, we bid farewell to Nick, and thanked him for the party before stepping outside and calling Dick and asking him to pick us up. He said he would in a few minutes and then hung up on us. So, we waited on the curb for Ethan's asshole of a brother to get here. I still had a hangover, so I rested my head on his shoulder slightly and he rested one of his arms loosely around my waist. We talked a bit, but mostly just enjoyed each other's company.

When Dick finally showed up, we got into the backseat and Dick gave Ethan a knowing look before driving off towards their house. When we got there, all three of us filed in the door and me and Ethan headed up to his room and crashed on his beanbags and bed. I then sat up from my beanbag and grabbed my phone out of my bag to check it for the first time since 2 PM yesterday, to see 1 missed call and 3 messages from my mother along with two messages from Kallum. I opened the messages from my mum first and told her that I had just stayed at a friend's house last night and apologized for making her worry. I then opened Kallum's messages. Ethan then asked me what I was doing.

"Just checking my missed messages. I had forgotten to tell my mum I was going to be out last night." I said, looking up from my phone to see him laying across his bed looking right at me. I looked back at my phone to see what Kallum had messaged me. He had said that he doesn't trust Ethan, and that I shouldn't either. Then followed by a message 10 minutes later claiming that he has evidence if I would just hear him out.

"Fucking dumbass, get a grip."

"Who are you texting now?" He inquired. Should I tell him about Kallum's messages? Yeah, why not.

"Just Kallum. He's trying to convince me to not trust you." I told him, while asking Kallum what this 'evidence' was before putting my phone back in my bag and talking to Ethan again. We kind of just hung out for most of the day, it was fun.

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Helloooooo, this is such a long chapter lol. Hope this makes up for the chapter I missed the other day. Sorry if this chapter is a bit all over the place, I tried to make it make sense. Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to loVE YOURSELFFF!!!!!!!!